Week 13 MVP Award Winner–
Captain Jack Sparrow (25 Points)
“Bin made th’ neccessary repairs on th’ Black Pearl. th’ sails be repaired ‘n th’ cannons be loaded. Why I feel a strong breeze a coming and I be heading for a showdown at the top. It’s time to RELEASE THE KRACKEN !! Says I.” This was Captain Jack Sparrow’s proclamation on the Club Shoutbox prior to kickoff of the Week 13 games. After reading this, it was apparent that he was carrying a lot of confidence into his Week 13 picks and match-up against defending champion Rad Dad in the Super Bowl Tournament. And sure enough, Captain Jack delivered big time by scoring 25 Points on a difficult week to claim the Week 13 MVP Award. The key to Captain Jack’s success was his brilliant pick of Wash over NYG on Monday night. And now Captain Jack is tied with two of his main rivals in the club– Dixie Slick & freespirit– in 8th Place in the Current Standings. Another solid week should put him back into the Top Five as he looks to surpass his Peak Position of #3 by the end of the season. Only 8 out of 28 players correctly picked Wash over NYG to score the 6 Point prize on Monday night– Captain Jack Sparrow, Mockytop, steveluvsal, MJD Hogg, The Cat, Double-Double, Bane & TK-421. That was a very difficult pick to make. And this week’s Monday night game should be just as difficult. Only 4 players last week got both Games of the Week correct with Indy & Cin– Hoosier Daddy, Staubach, C Master V & Dixie Slick. Hoosier Daddy was actually on his way to winning the Week 13 MVP Award until the NYG lost on Monday night. He was ahead of everyone up until that point. Even so, he padded his lead in 1st Place by another field goal and now he is up by 13 Points over the #2 player. If Hoosier Daddy can extend his lead to 20 Points, it would be nearly impossible for anybody to catch up to him. But there are still 4 weeks of play left, so anything can happen. For example, if Rad Dad posts two back-to-back MVP caliber weeks, he could easily jump into 1st Place and shock the club. Dixie Slick, freespirit & Annie-mal continued to maintain their perfection at picking Triple Jeopardy. But while Dixie Slick & Annie-mal picked NYJ with no TJ, freespirit took the risk by selecting TJ and improving her record to 5-0.
The Wild Card Round of the Super Bowl Tournament took place last week with some stunning results. Keep in mind that while 3 of the 8 matches were decided on Monday night, no players were given access to view or know their opponent’s picks. So they had to completely make their own picks and hope for the best, since switching picks was eliminated a few seasons back to eliminate the potential for excessive competitiveness. Top seeded player (1) Mr. T advanced by beating (10) Annie-mal by a comfortable margin of 19-14. In our friendly Glen Ellen rivalry match, (6) Captain Jack Sparrow knocked off defending champ (3) Rad Dad by more than doubling his score 25-12. Next up, (1) Mr. T and (6) Captain Jack meet up in the Divisional Round with a lot at stake. While Mr. T will be the heavy favorite in this match, Captain Jack has been firing his cannons at full capacity lately, so there could be an upset in the making. Second seeded player (2) Papa Tuna narrowly escaped an upset bid by (8) C Master V when Tuna pulled out a tie 19-19. Papa Tuna was very fortunate that he had happened to pick Over on Sunday night, while C Master V had picked Under. That allowed him to pick up the 1 Point that he needed to escape with a tie. And in a battle of club titans, (4) Double-Double knocked the #1 player in the Points Standings (5) Hoosier Daddy out of the tournament by beating him 24-22. This was a match that was worthy of being a Super Bowl final. But in a year of struggles, Double-Double made a brilliant pick of Wash on Monday night which turned the tide in his favor and allowed him to advance. Thus, the stage is set for another huge showdown, this time between (2) Papa Tuna and (4) Double-Double. Keep in mind that the last three years straight, Double-Double has been eliminated each time in the Wild Card Round by MJD Hogg. So he is happy that he has finally advanced to the Divisional Round, where he faces his old nemesis. Back in 2005, Papa Tuna def. Double-Double 26-17 in the Conference Round to knock him out of the tournament. The next year, in 2006, Double-Double returned the favor by beating Papa Tuna 24-18 in the Divisional Round. So another chapter is about to be written. Over in Conference Two, top seeded player (1) Catfish entered into this year’s Super Bowl Tournament with high hopes. But he wasn’t too thrilled with how the draw played out, which pitted him against one of his own Mighty Meg’s teammates. It was a close match, but (8) Iceman squeaked by (1) Catfish by a field goal 17-14 to advance and pull off the shocking upset. That’s a tremendous result for a rookie player to beat a strong veteran. Another one of the matches decided on Monday night was between (7) The Cat and (2) Captain Insano. The Cat was in the lead going into Monday night but he had the more riskier pick (according to oddsmakers) of Wash, while Captain Insano had picked NYG. Sitting at Club Headquarters looking over the picks sheets, I figured that Captain Insano had the edge and would advance. But I was very wrong. Wash delivered big time for The Cat and propelled him into the Divisional Round with a dominating 23-14 victory over Captain Insano. The upset bug also bit (3) Drummer Boy who was stunned by (6) Dixie Slick 19-14. I get the sense that Dixie Slick is really making a strong run at becoming the 2012 Super Bowl Head to Head Champion. She’s playing with such strong determination that I would almost place her as the favorite out of the remaining four players from Conference Two. In the final match last week, (4) Bane was battling it out with great champion (5) The Rickster. Despite the fact that The Rickster only had 7 Points so far going into the Monday night game, he was still alive in this match. Bane had a 5 Point lead with 12 Points, but he had selected Wash, while Rickster had selected NYG. When Wash ended up winning, Bane’s margin of victory increased to 18-7. The Rickster might be frustrated over this loss, but all he has to do is look up on his shelf and see his row of past Super Bowl trophies to bring a smile back to his face. This week, rookie player (8) Iceman goes for another upset as he squares off against (4) Bane. Even though Iceman is the lowest seeded player remaining in the draw, he has the picking experience of a veteran. So this will be a very close match, perhaps decided by whether or not these players select TJ and which team they pick in that game. The other match is another true rivalry– (7) The Cat meets up with (6) Dixie Slick. Back in Week 4, Dixie Slick embarrassed The Cat by beating him 21-9. But that was long before The Cat posted his history making Perfect Week. Anybody can win this one and find themselves in the Conference Round next week.
The Pro Bowl Tournament finally gets started this week. We have 8 teams entered, but only 1 will emerge as the Pro Bowl Team Champions. Believe it or not, but Daddy & His Boys just posted the best record in Pro Bowl Weekly regular season history. No team has ever lost less than 2 games. And Daddy & His Boys absolutely dominated everyone they played, finishing with a mark of 10-1-1. That is extremely impressive and worthy of a new record being added to The Hall of Fame in their honor, which will be done shortly. But with this new record and incredible 10 win regular season, a caution is also in order. With no bye weeks this season, Daddy & His Boys face a major trap game against one of the worst teams in club history, 1-10-1 Beasts of the Bay. In the tune-up game last week, Daddy & His Boys crushed Beasts of the Bay 58-33. That was a 25 Point margin of victory. Despite their horrible record, Beasts of the Bay actually have very good players on their team. They have a Club Champion (Nighthawk), Super Bowl Champion (Bob Swerski) & the current #3 player in the Points Standings (Captain Insano). So what I’m getting at is Daddy & His Boys need to be careful that they don’t start looking ahead to next week thinking this will be a cakewalk. Another team to pay attention to in the First Round of the Pro Bowl Tournament is defending champs Wild Animals. Wild Animals have not played well this season, but now they have a chance to change all of that and win back-to-back team trophies.